NEW DELHI: Ongoing geopolitical issues are constraining supply chain development, which is one of the main reasons for slowing growth in the domestic smartphone industry, while fifth generation (5G) networks are device segment, said ETTelecom panelists. 5G|6G Congress 2024 states:
“There are geopolitical issues that are limiting the development of the supply chain a little bit. That’s the challenge at hand that we need to solve. Also, brand spending is decreasing, so “That’s one of the reasons why the market is not growing rapidly,” said Pankaj Mohindroo, president of the Indian Cellular Electronics Association (ICEA). “In that respect, the situation is not optimal at the moment.”
Mohindru was speaking at a panel discussion on “Building a Robust 5G Device Ecosystem” at the recently concluded 7th ETTelecom 5G|6G Congress 2024.
According to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC), the Indian smartphone market grew by 1% year-on-year in 2023 with 146 million units shipped, which is a 10% year-on-year growth in 2022. It was better than a decrease.
The research firm later warned that the smartphone industry’s road to recovery would be long and marred by challenges including income levels, inflation stress, rising prices and piling inventories. The company expects annual growth to be flat to low single digits this year, driven primarily by upgrades in the $200-$400 segment backed by financing schemes, extended warranties and upgrade programs.
“From a component point of view, the supply chain is starting to develop. 50% of feature phones are (manufactured) in India, but smartphones (in the case of) take longer. As Indian brands, Vivo and Oppo If you want to compare yourself to , you can’t spend that much because you haven’t reached that volume,” said Rishi Bhatnagar, president, R&D and global alliances at homegrown handset maker Lava. . .
Mohindru said the development of the smartphone supply chain will create “large-scale basic industries” such as battery packs and chargers. “In the next two to three years, this environment is going to look very different.”
Tasleem Arif, vice president and head of R&D at Oppo India, said the company will spend at least three years developing new services using artificial intelligence (AI) and large-scale language models (LLM) to improve the consumer experience. He said the emphasis would be on To benefit investors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and carriers investing in this technology.
“[Operators]will have confidence if they can build services around 5G, for example, because switching technology from[for example]4G to 5G or 5G to 6G requires a lot of investment. Because you will need it,” Arif said.
MediaTek India’s Dr. Anku Jain said fifth-generation networks could bring growth in several device areas such as smartphones, smart TVs, Chromebooks, speakers and routers.
“5G has endless possibilities in every way. For example, with 5G, surgeons can perform surgeries. So whether it’s IoT (Internet of Things) or non-smartphone segments like laptops, No matter what, the possibilities are endless,” said Bazul Kochar, Product Manager, Realme India.
“India has a population of approximately 1.4 billion people. There are approximately 1 billion mobile phone users. Of the approximately 650 million smartphone users, an additional 35 million are feature phone users. , around 500 million people are using 4G devices, which means 150 million people are 5G users. More than 90% of 5G devices are priced above Rs 15,000, while 80% of the market is below Rs 30,000. This means 5G is needed as a major lever to drive growth,” said Navkendar Singh, Associate Vice President, Asia Pacific, IDC.
Mr. Shin moderated the panel discussion.
